Palo Alto gets the best of Heritage standouts

Before the game, Palo Alto boys basketball coach Peter Diepenbrock called the Heritage-Brentwood duo of Jonathan Ned and Ezra Manjon the high school version of former NBA teammates Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

After his team held the duo to 19 points, including four in the second half to key a 59-49 CIF Northern California Division 1 quarterfinal road win Saturday, Diepenbrock was left far more impressed with his high school version of Palo Alto.

“What a challenge,” he said. “Is that a special group right there? Just the extra little passes. The way they trust each other. It’s a special group. It’s a really special group.”

The eighth-seeded Vikings (25-3) overcame sloppy ballhanding early, a nine-point second-quarter deficit as well as Ned and Manjon, who last week combined for 70 points in a 100-98 win over Dublin.

On Saturday, Manjon, a 5-foot-9 guard, was held scoreless in the second half, and Ned, a 6-7 forward averaging more than 25 points per game in the playoffs, never got going and finished with 10 points.

Palo Alto, meanwhile, got contributions all around, led by Max Doward (16 points), William Schlemmer (13) and Jared Wulbrun, Spencer Rojahn and Paul Jackson, who combined for 24.

Rojahn scored all eight of his points in the third quarter, when the Vikings wiped out a 27-22 halftime deficit with a 19-10 run to go up for good. Rojahn also made the key play, hitting Schlemmer with a long lead pass, leading to a threepoint play with 46.8 seconds left. Jacob Williams (18 points) had hit his sixth three-pointer to cut Palo Alto’s lead to 52-49 and Rojahn had the ball knocked away in the backcourt.

Rather than panic, he grabbed the ball under the Heritage basket, looked up and found a streaking Schlemmer, who scored 10 of Palo Alto’s points in the fourth quarter when the Vikings were 7-for-7 from the line.

“That’s why I broke,” Schlemmer said of the key three-point play. “Spencer is one of our better passers. He has really good vision. If I was open, he would find me.”

Now the Vikings find themselves home in Tuesday’s semifinal against 13th-seed Menlo School, a team Palo Alto lost to earlier in the season. In the other bracket sits Mitty, a team Palo Alto has also lost to.

“It’s our revenge season,” Schlemmer said. “Let’s do it. If we play like tonight, we can win this tournament.”